Secrets
by Krys33
Summary: They've all got secrets. [Gen., Standalone Chapters.]
1. Temperance Brennan: Forgotten

A/N: Originally, all five chapters of this were going to be one story. But I discovered that I think they'd work better as tiny, individual chapters. Plus, you guys get to read some before I've finished it all! (Don't worry, they won't take too long. I've got the first two done already! But you don't get chapter two til I get some reviews!)

So be sure to tell me what you think. This idea was just... random. It could've had more humor than I allowed, but I decided to be serious. (I don't write much humor. 'Behind the Scenes' is my humor Bones story. :D)

**

* * *

Name:** _Dr. Temperance Brennan_

**Her secret:** She's afraid of death.

If you ask, Temperance Brennan will never admit to such a fear. She will tell you that it is illogical, that death is inevitable and that fearing it does nobody any good. But that statement would be purely hypocritical.

She's seen what happens to people, after they die. She's seen what bodies look like after being in the ground for years and years. She knows that after that long, nobody is recognizable anymore, that people eventually slip away and become one of the many.

One of the forgotten.

She knows that some of the bodies she's examined met their demise because of natural occurrences, and those don't frighten her as much as the ones that have been murdered. And she's been seeing a lot of the latter, lately.

These are the ones that remind her of how little time she could have left, all the things she's been leaving undone and all the words she's been leaving unsaid. It's not as much a fear of _death_, but more of a fear of the repercussions of it.

She's afraid of never actually _living_, and she's even more afraid of being forgotten.


	2. Seeley Booth: Maybe

A/N: Here we go! Chapter Two. Ch. 3 may take a little longer, cause it's not written yet, but I'll be sure to get to work on it!

**

* * *

Name:** Special _Agent Seeley Booth_

**His secret:** Sometimes he thinks that it actually _would_ be better if Parker had never been born.

Of course, no one will ever know this. He knows that he'll never say the words aloud, for the fear of making them true.

But sometimes he does wonder how life would be.

Maybe it would be better for Parker, having no life versus one of unequal parents and a father he never gets to see. A life without the being shuffled from mom to dad and back again, a life without the sounds of shouting when everyone thinks he's asleep.

Maybe he would still be with Rebecca. Maybe it would've worked between them and he would have a wife, kids and maybe even a dog in the house with the white picket fence he's always dreamed about.

Maybe. But when he gets these thoughts, he pulls out his wallet and looks at the picture of his son.

And he remembers that day in the hospital, holding him for the first time. He remembers all the moments he's spent with him, and all the important events he's seen, even if he missed a lot of the others.

That's when he shoves the thought of a Parker-less life from his head and vows to never think of it again. Because even though he knows that he will, he thinks that _maybe_, one day, he won't.


	3. Zachery Addy: Expectation

**Name:** _Zachary Addy_

**His secret:** His still finds himself waiting for his dad to come home.

They probably think he doesn't remember. He was only four years old, after all.

But he does.

He remembers clasping his hands over his ears in the middle of the night as he huddled beneath his rocket ship sheets to drown out the sounds of fighting and crying. He remembers the bottles he'd find poorly hidden behind furniture and in cabinets.

But mostly, he remembers the day his dad left.

He remembers sitting up in the attic – his special place – and watching his dad drive off in the red Mazda with the peeling red paint. He remembers having a four-year-old optimism about the whole situation, never once believing his dad was gone forever.

He remembers getting older, and spending more and more time in the attic, staring down the road, looking for that shoddy red car his father had loved so much, with the clattering engine you could hear from a mile away. He remembers crying there, at that window, the day it finally dawned on him that his dad wasn't coming back.

But still he waited, in that same spot, every day. It had become routine, by then.

It's been twenty years, and he still remembers.

And sometimes, he finds himself staring out the window of his place, over the tennis courts and the driveway, half expecting to see the familiar red car pull up, as if no time has passed at all.


	4. Angela Montenegro: Hope

**Name:** _Angela Montenegro_

**Her secret:** She has a daughter.

Or should it be _had_?

She's never quite sure what tense to use in that sentence. But it doesn't really matter, because she's never told anyone.

And she doesn't plan to.

That time in her life wasn't great.

She was only eighteen, fresh out of high school and a naively optimistic freshman at the creative arts college of her dreams.

How quickly things like that change.

She dropped out the moment she knew. She didn't want to be 'the pregnant girl'.

Who would?

She never told the father, either. No need to burden him with something this monumental.

And it's not like she knew his name.

Sometimes she wonders what happened to her daughter. Last she heard, she was adopted by a nice family up in Maine.

But that was twelve years ago.

She actually used the one picture of the baby that she had as a test in the early stages of the Angelator. Though she probably won't ever know if her calculations are correct, it's nice for her to be able to put a face with a name.

The entire nine months of pregnancy was spent putting off picking out that name. She wanted it to be _perfect_. It was all she could give her daughter before sending her off, after all.

And in the end, she found the decision wasn't nearly as difficult as she'd thought. The perfect name encompassed everything she'd wanted it to.

_Hope_.


	5. Jack Hodgins: Better

**A/N:** I had issues with this chapter. Hodgins is the toughest character for me to relate to, and I have trouble getting inside his head. This is what came of my scrounging for a good idea. Feedback, please?

**

* * *

**

**Name:** _Jack Hodgins_

**His secret:** He looks down on himself.

Jack Hodgins hates being put on a pedestal.

Which is why he won't give Zach advice on women or brag about his big house and antique cars or tell people how much money he has.

He's content with being on the same level as everybody else; a normal guy with a normal life.

He hides his wealth because he doesn't want people treating him like something special and kissing his ass 24/7. He knows he's not worth that.

He knows of all his imperfections, even if no one else can see them. He knows that there are better people in the world, people who actually _should_ be looked up to. He's around people like that every day, people who _are_ special and who _deserve_ respect and ass-kissing.

People who make a _difference_.

People far, far better than him.

* * *

And here we end.


End file.
